“Hebron. The media loves to talk about Hebron. Just this afternoon, as I strolled through Manhattan, Hebron flashed before my eyes. The fire engine red news ticker on the Fox News building displayed an urgent story about Hebron. Something about settlers, building permits, casualty counts. I quickly turned the corner. Hours away from the 87th anniversary of the 1929 massacre and ethnic cleansing of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron, faux controversy over building permits for Jews seemed pretty grotesque.”

“The stories of Arabs storming Jewish homes while police casually watched has been written many times over and I won’t elaborate on the details, but the barbaric savagery which left 67 murdered and dozens injured is beyond belief. Over a couple of days, the Hebron community was wiped out and Jews in Jerusalem, Safed, Tel Aviv, Haifa and moshavim were attacked, maimed, raped, robbed, looted and murdered in a variety of creative ways. The casualty list is a lengthy one.”

Aaron may not have known what a meme was, but he created an indelible one. We just added our own sticker version to the store, and as far as we’re concerned, the more this meme gets around, the better.

But it’s the comments on the Instagram page that are notable — and chilling.

The poster repeatedly has to defend himself against accusations of everything from plain bad taste to absurd overstatement.

One comment in particular, from sierraechotangohotel (Seth), a self-identified proud American Jew, reminds us of the famous dictum that the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. He writes, in part:

Just remember there is in no way shape or format any iota of comparison of the current state of firearms laws to the holocaust! I am a proud Jewish American and I just don’t understand what makes you think these two subjects are in any way comparable. If we lived in Venezuela where they are currently crushing firearms and making its citizens register it’s ammunition, I might understand then but we live in the greatest country this world has to offer!

You’ve got to wonder, don’t you, how many people in early 20th-century Germany, including Jews, thought their own country was the “greatest the world has to offer.” After all, it was a grand center of civilization and had been for centuries. It was the land of Goethe and Beethoven and Schiller. Of Schopenhauer and Kant and E.T.A. Hoffman and entire hordes of Bachs. Men of the mind. Men of the arts. Thriving in Germany’s orderly civil society.

What could possibly go wrong?

Except we all know what did go wrong — and how quickly.

(“Gun control” was an integral part of what enabled things to go bad. That and … that big Egyptian river.)

But what about Venezuela? They’re busily crushing guns there, terrified of violence in the streets. Never mind that most criminals in that desperate country are buying their firearms from equally desperate or simply corrupt police. Never mind that the problem isn’t so much guns as an economy in ruins beyond anything we prosperous first-worlders can imagine.

Venezuela was once the most prosperous — one could say the greatest — country in South America. It’s got some of the world’s biggest oil reserves. It had a long, noble tradition. So how long did it take for Venezuela to go from greatness to such hell that people can’t even buy toilet paper? Seventeen years. From the ascension of Hugo Chavez, who vigorously began implementing utopian Socialist plans in 1999 (to the applause of the world’s celebrities) to the muddle of his hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro. Seventeen little years.

Slightly less time than it took Hitler to go from demonization to destruction of Germany’s Jews. Slightly longer than it took for Germany to go from pre-WWI prosperity to hyperinflation to the Holocaust to bombed-out ruins.

Still, we’ve got nothing to worry about, right? As Seth says, there’s not a thing to be concerned about until the firearms are being crushed en masse and ammo being actively registered.

And by that impeccable logic, the Jews in Germany were perfectly sensible to stay put and stay happy until the boxcars started rumbling down the tracks.

I realize, that’s yesterday, but I can’t let it go without sharing a couple things.

The first is something wonderful I got from my teammate, Y.B. a wonderful true story honoring the spirit and commitment of Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam.

Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam

Defiance on a Death March
The Klausenberger Rebbe z’tl on 9 Av

Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam became one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the town of Klausenburg, Romania, before World War II. His wife, eleven children and most of his followers were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

In the summer of 1944 the Russian Army moved west and pushed the Nazis further and further back across Poland into Germany. The Germans, in an effort to cover their crimes forced thousands of slave labourers on death marches across Poland. The Rebbe had previously spent time in Auschwitz and on a work detail in Warsaw, sifting through the rubble of the now vacant Warsaw ghetto on his hands and knees, forced to look for anything that might be of value for the Nazi war effort.

As the Russians moved closer the Rebbe along with 6000 other prisoners were forced to march for twenty miles a day, in the scorching Polish summer. The death camp of Dachau in Germany was to be their final destination of which just 2000 made it.

On the march, the prisoners were starved of food and water and any stragglers were shot immediately. On the day of Tisha B’Av (9th of the Jewish month of Av), Jews mourn the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem as well as many other disasters that have happened on this painful day. One of the signs of mourning of Tisha B’Av is that Jews remove their leather shoes (leather shoes being an inappropriate sign of comfort and luxury on this solemn day).

On this day and on this march, the Rebbe removed his shoes. Despite all that had happened to him, he refused to give up on the Jewish observances that made him who he was. The Nazis saw this as a sign of rebellion and decided to have some fun at the Rebbe’s expense. They made him march alongside the column on broken stones and gravel. They joked as his feet became bloodied and bruised.

At one point they thought he was trying to escape down the embankment so they shot him. He was hit in the arm and tumbled down the embankment. In an effort to stem the bleeding, he took bark and leaves from a tree and wrapped it around the wound. It was at that point in his life, when faced with such unimaginable pain, hatred and adversity that the Rebbe demonstrated forever that there is no depth from which the human spirit cannot rise.

It was at that point that he swore to God that should he survive he would build an institution based on the Jewish values of love, peace, equality and tolerance, all of the values the Nazis despised. He swore that he would build a hospital in the land of Israel that would epitomise everything the Nazis tried to destroy.

Today, that hospital is Laniado in Netanya.The hospital was built in 1974. After the maternity unit was opened, the Rebbe asked the nurses and staff to call him immediately when the first baby was born. A few days later he received the call with the good news. Upon hearing, the Rebbe said in a broken voice, ‘zeh ha nekama sheli’, ‘this is my revenge’. This is my revenge – life will defeat death, hope will defeat pain, compassion will overcome hatred.

May this Tisha B’Av be the last before our mourning is turned into joy and celebration.

Yep, I actually do see a link. While I may not be the best person to explain this, I want to try.

The 17th of Tammuz on the Hebrew calender was the 23rd of July, Saturday. Normally you fast that day, but as it landed on Shabbat, the fast was postponed until the next day, the 24th of July, Sunday. The 17th of Tammuz starts a three week period of mourning, culminating on Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av is another post for another time. I’ll stick with the 17th of Tammuz, from the Chabad web site

Moses broke the tablets when he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.

During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep.

Apostomos burned the holy Torah.

An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.

The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)
The Jerusalem Talmud maintains that this is also the date when the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem on their way to destroying the first Temple.

Plenty of sorrow on the 17th of Tammuz or 23rd of July, for this year.

More came on the 25th of July with the start of the Demoncratic national convention. I have no intention of telling you who to vote for, this is about the “low lights” shall we say of the coven, er, convention. The meeting opened with a word of prayer, during which the Democrats booed. They didn’t like the prayer. I read what she was praying, I didn’t like it much either, but they may have been booing because she was praying, who knows, since in 2012 they booed when G-d was put back in their platform. Speaking of that platform, from Liberty Unyielding:

Yesterday we reported about a Pew Research poll which demonstrated that Liberal Democrats were not fans of the Jewish State, and recalled the four pro-Israel planks removed from the 2012 Democratic Platform and how the delegates booed when one of the planks about Jerusalem was put back. Based on people put on the DNC platform committee, it looks as if the Democratic Party is looking to continue backing away from supporting Israel.

It seems that the DNC Platform Committee is loaded with people who are not exactly friends of the Jewish State. Among those Bernie Sanders added were James Zogby and Cornel West. (Note: Rep. Keith Ellison (muslim) was also placed on the committee; while he leans toward the Palestinian side, he is not the same kind of froth-at-the-mouth Israel hater as Zogby and West). Hillary’s picks include some who should be worrisome to Israel supporters: Ambassador Wendy Sherman and Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden. One of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s picks was California Rep. Barbara Lee, a longtime critic of Israel.

The next low light is, it sounds as though American flags may have been in short supply, but to say that there were not flags at the DNC is a hateful lie. Of course there was.

The Falestinian flag proudly on display at the DNC

But to be honest, the Israeli flag was also at the DNC. Outside. Being burned.

In a video posted online, one protestor is seen setting an Israeli flag alight, while another waves a Palestinian flag nearby. Others chant “Long Live the Intifada” – a call of support for the Palestinian terrorist campaign plaguing Israel.

The Israeli Flag was burned at the DNC

And if just this wasn’t enough “junk” for Israel to deal with, it seems Black Lives Matter has decided to open an Israeli branch. After their deep studies into middle-east affairs (and being invited to appear with Hillary Clinton on the DNC stage) they have arrived in Israel. While there they expressed solidarity with the Falestinians and encouraged them on in their goals. To kill Jews living in Israel. Not surprisingly, they also expressed approval for the BS movement, er BDS scheme. Lending even more credence to the Demoncrat party’s Pro-Israel position.

After accusing Israel of “systematic discrimination” against Palestinian Arabs, apartheid-like policies, and even outright genocide, the platform calls for an end to US foreign aid to the Jewish state, which should instead be diverted to reparations for “victims” of “American war-making” like Iraq, and Libya, as well as African Americans descended from slaves in the American South.

No word on when they will be going to Iraq, Syria or any of the other countries massacring any remaining Jews, Christians or opposing Muslims. Actually no mention of this even happening. Must has skipped that 2 minute lecture in their middle-east studies.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that they showed up in Israel at this time?

That many continue to think the Demoncrats are pro-Israel is baffling to me. But I don’t listen to CNN, MSLSD or NBC, CBS, ABC, MoreBS or any of the other Clinton fan club media, if I can avoid it. I do find some interesting info on Israeli news sites though.

Now, to the Holy Temple (I WISH). When the Temples were destroyed, it also destroyed the heart of worship that had taken place there.

UNESCO is again attempting to say that the Temple Mount, site of TWO Jewish Temples, is not in fact Jewish, but muslim. July 10, 2016. Yes, again. I guess I could mention, if the Temple Mount isn’t Jewish, then where was it Yeshua was teaching? So this affects Christians as well as Jews. Neither are allowed to pray there now, but if UNESCO gets it’s way, they won’t be allowed to visit either. Sort of like trying to destroy any little remaining connection to the Temple and Jews.

So, looking at plans of the Temple on the Chabad web site I learned some fascinating things. For example, did you know in King Solomon’s time it had FIVE entry gates? South – Two Chuldah gates,
West – The Kiphonus gate, North – The Tadi gate, East – The Shushan gate. When King Herod expanded the Temple Mount area, he added three more.

The focal point of the Temple Mount was a central courtyard containing the structure of the Bet Hamikdash. The rest of the Temple Mount area contained various rooms and buildings, including:

• House of Study, in which the Talmudic law was taught and discussed.
• Lounge for minor Temple officials.
• Weapons room, in case of enemy invasion.
• Tool room for repair work.
• Trumpet place. The shofar (ram’s horn) was sounded from the roof of this building before the onset of the Sabbath to let the people know when they must refrain from work.

Yep, needed the shofar, and repai….WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT JUST A MINUTE HERE! A WHAT? A WEAPONS room? In case of enemy invasion? The Holy Temple had a WEAPONS room? They realized they would have enemies who would want to destroy them and the Holy Temple and they were prepared to FIGHT for the people and defend the Temple? With WEAPONS? Well, my. If there was a weapons room in the HOLY TEMPLE, why then, does not every Synagogue and Church and Chapel and….have the wherewithal to be able to defend themselves and their people in case of attack? In fact, they are usually Gun Free Easy Disarmed Helpless Victim Zones.

I’m guessing it has something to do with the mindset.

From an issue of my Zehut newsletter from the 17th of Tammuz a Moshe Feiglin column:

This is all very reminiscent of how the Left took advantage of

Rabin’s assassination. Whoever did not support the Oslo Accords

automatically became a partner to the murder.

The process unfolds approximately as follows:

1. First, a move that completely contradicts the values of the

majority of the public is shoved down its throat.

2. The public stands up and protests.

3. The media portray the opponents to the move in a negative light

and distance them from the boundaries of legitimate discourse.

4. The public becomes frustrated and enraged. More public

opposition is met with more demonization.

5. Somebody (usually a psychopath) decides to employ violence –

and succeeds.

6. Everybody is in shock.

7. The shock is used to obliterate the will of the majority. Whoever

does not accept the minority position is a murderer.

8. The minority approach becomes the ruling position and is

translated into laws and policies.

9. The minority has won and forces its values upon the majority.

This pathway came from an article about a different topic, but they are still just as applicable to gun control.

As we continue to see attacks and shootings I wouldn’t be shocked to see this played out, if it hasn’t already. Much like a scene from a Matthew Bracken book Enemies Domestic and Foreign.

So, ready for Hillary and the Demoncrats? Only the first 39 seconds or so is what I’m referencing.

Three Border Police officers were lightly wounded by Muslim rioters at Qalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem on Friday afternoon.

The officers were struck by rocks hurled by Arab rioters, who were waiting for permission to enter Israeli territory from the Palestinian Authority, on their way to the Temple Mount’s Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Sort of like black lives matter in Columbia MO. Nothing says we are friends, and mean no harm and just want to have a reasonable conversation or go worship at our holy place (filled with rocks and rockets) like stopping a car in a parade or a riot.

A group of nine Israeli leftist activists on Wednesday evening had to be rescued from the Palestinian Arab city of Ramallah, after locals attacked one of their vehicles.

The Israelis reportedly entered the city of their own volition to celebrate the nightly breaking of the Ramadan fast with local Arabs. Locals who noticed them hurled rocks and firebombs at one of their cars, which caught fire.

Something to chew on for those who sincerely believe in their “Coexist” bumper stickers. But yeah, this one is funny. No one died.

On July 1st, this is one of the two more horrifying stories I’ve for you:

One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting attack at the Adorayim Junction south of Hevron in Judea.

The fatality has been identified as 40-year-old Michael “Micki” Markrom HY’’D the nearby town of Otniel, who was traveling in his car with his family when it was targeted.

His wife Chavi was seriously wounded in the attack, and was evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body.

Two other family members were also wounded in the attack. Paramedics say in addition to the mother of the family, they treated a 13-year-old girl in moderate-to-serious condition suffering from gunshot wounds to her upper body, and a 15-year-old boy who was lightly wounded, presumably from the crash.

In case you don’t remember Otniel is where Dafna Meir HY’’D lived, she was stabbed to death in the doorway of her home, fighting to save her children. And the attack resembled closely to one that occurred last November when Rabbi Yaakov Litman HY’’D and his son Netanel HY’’D were murdered in that attack, as they were traveling with their family.

Even as the funeral procession for Rabbi Michael Mark, terror victim, wound toward Jerusalem, locals would not leave them in peace: Arabs threw a stone from a passing car, striking one of the buses of mourners.

Thirteen year old Hallel-Yaffa Ariel HY’’D was murdered in her bed, in her home. Hallel was an amazing dancer who had preformed just the night before in Jerusalem. Also wounded in the attack was a 31 year old security guard from the town’s security squad. The security squad responded very quickly to the alert that the perimeter had been breached. The terrorist had locked himself in Hallel’s bedroom so he could stab her without being interrupted. He then lay in wait for security squads. Hallel’s father was one of them that came through the door to find his daughter. The terrorist then attacked a 31 year old member of the security squad. The young man is going to lose his eye, but he will live. The terrorist was then killed by the security squad. The young man’s wife works as a volunteer on the MDA ambulance and she ended up being on the ambulance to ride into the hospital with him. This interview is well worth watching. I love this woman’s spirit, and she tells how she happened to be in the ambulance and gives a report on her husband.

I can hear it now, you can’t you just can’t blame a group for the actions of one kid! Very true, I’m not.

“My son is a hero,” she says. “My son died as a martyr defending Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque. Praise be to God, he is united with the martyrs before him, and he is not better than them. God willing, all of them will follow this path, all the youth of Palestine.”

According to friends and relatives of Dipsh*t (I’m NOT giving his name), he had posted a slew of Facebook statuses in the weeks before the attack expressing his desire to die as a martyr. In some of them, he said he wanted to avenge his cousin, who was killed as he carried out a car-ramming attack near Kiryat Arba. One soldier was lightly injured in that attack, before other troops shot and killed the attacker.

Apparently this sort of thing does NOT violate Facebook community standards. Only pro-Israel, Conservative and some Second Amendment stuff violates the sensitive Facebook community standards.

During the night IDF forces arrested two brothers of 17-year-old Dipsh*t, the terrorist who murdered Hallel-Yaffa Ariel in Kiryat Arba.

Not exactly an aberrancy is old Dipsh*t?

So how do kids, a lot of them, who grow up to be adults and then parents turn out this evil and deluded?

One choice is the appeasement crowd.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. ~~Winston Churchill

I would put the liberals and those who call the parts of Israel known as Judea and Samaria “occupied territory” in this group. Failing to learn from the withdrawal of the Gaza strip they think the peace will come if Israel just gives in.

How this works in real life.

Only muslims are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Non muslims are not allowed to pray. Now this little drama plays out in variations every year on Ram-a-damn. The muslims store rockets, Molatov cocktails, firebombs, stones in the holy mosque. Then when anyone other than a muslim attempts to go to the Temple Mount the muslims pitch a hissy and attack them screaming, yelling and assaulting them with whatever potential weapons of murder they have stashed in the holy mosque. Then non-muslims are banned from the Temple Mount. Hissy fit success. So, this year as in the past, Netanyahu ordered the police to give in to the arab hissy fit and barred non-muslims despite the fact the Police had held their own and visitors were still being allowed up. In an immediate spirit of cooperation engendered by this cave in of principles, the pieceful Falestinians moved over and began to throw stones down at those in prayer at the Western Wall, the Kotel, onJune 28th. In real life, the appeasement thing doesn’t work well.

Falestinian schools hide Judenrein maps during Moon’s visit. Then denies they were ever hidden. The maps showing no state of Israel, only Falestine. Of course UNRWA denies they have anything to do with any maps. Just because there is no longer an Israel on the map, does that really mean so much? UNRWA creating angry, entitlement, hate filled children for ages. Encouraging them to hate Judeo-Christian values and the people. Pretty much like the average university here.

The State Department on Tuesday issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s plans to build new housing units in Maale Adumim and in Jerusalem.

“If it’s true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions, and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby of the plans, which were announced Sunday following last week’s terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

Danon drew a clear line between the horrific murder of Hallel-Yaffa Ariel last week and the speech of Mahmoud Abbas to the European Parliament a week earlier.

In that speech, Abbas revived an old blood libel and claimed that some rabbis had called on the government of Israel to poison Palestinian water supplies. Instead of immediate condemnation, the elected European representatives of democratic nations responded with loud applause.

Danon writes, “We were all shocked. How can he say that? Lie to the European Parliament like that? This is a blood libel! But that was not the worst. We well know the constant lies and incitement of Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. Every morning we again see Abbas’ praise for terrorists through the Palestinian education system and state-run television.”

“But the main thing on this occasion was not the incitement, but the applause.”

Danon claims that such constant incitement turns teenage Palestinians into murderous monsters. In the twisted mind of a 17-year-old terrorist, the claim that rabbis want to poison the wells is justification enough to kills a young girl in her bed. But that does not necessarily mean that he will carry out such an attack.

“But when a monster like this then hears the applause of the Members of Parliament, his perverted ideology is confirmed by those who should be the most moral in the world. [He thinks that] if they cheer like this, they will also cheer for me.”

And not only that, they get paid. Yes indeed folks, the PA pays it’s terrorists to kills Jews, and whoever else is handy. If the IDF demolishes their house? No biggie the PA pays for a newer, bigger, fancier one to be built. This doesn’t seem to bother Ban Ki or the Meddle East Quartet. Is there any other country on the face of the earth that the UN feels so compelled to try and dictate policy?

So, where does the money come from that the PA uses to pay terrorists? Where does the power and encouragement backing it and Hamass originate?

Youth or Terrorist

You gave it to them. You and your family and friends. You gave up eating out once a week and paying to have your car washed and did it yourself at home. You gave up that cable sports channel, bigger cellphone data plan so that you could pay Dipsh*t to kill little 13 year old Hallel in her bed.

But please do not simply make do with a deluge of angry or sad social media posts. You can act. In fact, you have a moral duty to act and not stand idly by as the blood of your brothers and sisters continues to flow.

Because the bloodthirsty terrorist who murdered young Hallel was, at least in some part, indoctrinated and encouraged courtesy of your own tax dollars – or pounds, or euros.

The Palestinian Authority is funded almost entirely by state donors, its most generous benefactors including none other than the United States of America, and a host of European states, chief among them the United Kingdom.

It is by now the worst-kept secret in the international aid industry (and what a lucrative industry that is) that a large portion of that money goes towards not just incitement and indoctrination – whether in schools and mosques, or official PA youth clubs and sporting events – but directly into the pockets of Palestinian terrorists and their families.

Just recently, at an iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast in Ramallah, PA “Prime Minister” Rami Hamdallah vowed to increase spending to support “heroic” terrorists. This support, he boasted, included increasing the monthly wage paid to every terrorist imprisoned for carrying out an attack, as well as upping the cash prize awarded to every Palestinian family which offers up one of its children as a “martyr.”

The family of Hallel’s killer, 17-year-old Dipsh*t of Bani Naim, near Hevron, will also be paid by the PA for his despicable actions. With money from your back pocket. Just know that.

But that is truer still when it comes to the Palestinian Authority. Your governments fund them directly.

So take action, right now. Write to your local member of parliament or congress; to your ministers and prime ministers and presidents, and ask for accountability. Ask them to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority until it can prove that not a penny will go towards funding and encouraging terrorism.

Write to your communal leaders, and to your local pro-Israel organizations, and demand they take the lead in rallying and lobbying for accountability and an end to your tax money funding Palestinian terrorism.

Spend at least as long as you took to vent on social media to write to your elected representatives and to others who can make a difference.

Please. It’s the least you could do.

Even the NY Post blasted the use of US taxpayer dollars being used to kill Israeli soldiers and children on July 1st.

“Meanwhile, hundreds of millions flow to the PA from the West, including America. Which means US tax dollars are, in effect, going to pay for terrorist acts,” adding “And here you thought we were fighting terror”.

The editorial board called upon congress to rescind funding for the Palestinian Authority, and thus “cut off US funding for Palestinian terror.”

“Congress should do all it can to curb the practice”.

“Sending US tax dollars to the PA, only to see them go to reward terror, is a moral obscenity.”

Look at the dates on these articles. All of this happened within a few days of each other.

A lot of this goes back to somethings many wise people have said. Rights come from G-d, not man. Moshe Feiglin talked about it in his interview and his recent webinar. Many Second Amendment people have pointed this out. We are our own first responders. Moshe said that he wanted Israelis to remember the real, original concept of freedom. I would like many Americans who have been indoctrinated otherwise to learn this truth. No matter how close the security squads, no matter how good, they may not get there in time. True freedom is Israel does what is best for Israel and is not dictated to by the UN, an anti-Israel US president or any Meddle East committee. No matter what Israel does she will not win their approval. They do not want to give their approval. They want her to live by their rules till she is obliterated. The same with US gun owners, peaceful law-abiding citizens just wanting to live their lives. The political parties, the NRA and other such type of Second Amendment organizations are willing to bargain and compromise our rights. You can’t appease these people. It will not work, and we will be in a deeper hole than we were before.

If Jews can not live safely in Israel as Jews, but instead are the target of US, EU & UK sponsored terrorism because they are Jews??? And this is what so many do not understand, or do not care about. This has nothing to do with territories, this has everything to do with the latest attempt at genocide. But no one wants to call it that. No one wants to admit that in this day and age such a thing could happen again. So heads are put under pillows, the media whitewashes, the politicians lie and excuse. And people bleed and die in their beds.

So much pain, sorrow and suffering. And we paid for it, we made it possible.

When the Israelites were at Kadesh-Barnea, Moses selected leaders of the Twelve Tribes as scouts, to go in advance into the Promised Land, and report back what they found. The people remained behind to await their return.

Upon returning, ten of twelve scouts gave grave reports of terrifying foes. Despite the people having been witness to unparalleled miracles wrought on their behalf, again-and-again… they lost their nerve, and recoiled from entering the Land, preferring to stay in the Wilderness.

G-d responded by declaring that with two exceptions, the entire generation would be accommodated in their insistent lack of Emuna. They would live out their lives wandering the Wilderness; their people’s destiny held in abeyance until they were gone.

The Sages tell us that The People had been refined to the point where their destiny was at hand. Still, at the very moment when they were to enter the Land, to follow the Torah, and make their home a beacon for the Nations, they succumbed to fear. So, G-d provided them, during their wanderings, even more support and instruction, such that their children would persevere. The first lesson was at the hands of Amalek.

Elie Wiesel has passed away. A survivor of the Holocaust. Prolific author. Compelling witness to mindless atrocity. A giant in our time. Gone. But his legacy lives on. Many words have and will be written about this man and the values he fought for. Raised in the traditions of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, and learned in both religious and secular worlds, he dedicated his life to the good of mankind.

Sadly, there was one shortcoming. He allied himself often (undoubtedly to spread his message as wide and as deep as possible) with some less than savory people, including many of the so-called “Leaders” of major “Jewish” organizations. Many of these “Leaders” supported policies that were little more than western liberal political, social, and cultural mores, slicked up with Jewish trappings.

Hekshered treif, one might say.

Perhaps the worst, most Anti-Semitic, policy these “Leaders” embraced, was Victim Disarmament. They are always at the forefront of this suicidal movement. You would think that in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust, there would be some second thoughts on this, since the actors were the victims very own governments…

You would be wrong. Dead wrong.

Research established that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was directly modeled after the Nuremburg Laws, and that true-to form, every genocide in recent history had as a necessary precursor, the systematic disarming of the intended victims.

These “Leaders”, presented with the evidence, clamped their eyes shut, clamped their hands over their ears, and refused to examine it. Aaron Zelman offered it to Mr. Wiesel. He likewise would not look at it.

So, while recognizing the heroic stature, and magnificent legacy, of Elie Wiesel, and (confident that his time before the heavenly tribunal is very brief) we pray for his soul.

But, we must leave it to those who follow in this World, to open their eyes to this truth, and thereby stand better armed against evil. Join us, won’t you?

I guess I’ve had a couple trips down memory lane lately. Well, other people’s memory as well as my own.

I saw this iconic picture yesterday hanging on a wall and it started a conversation between me and another lady sitting there. So I looked up the history on it. Far from being faked as has been supposed by some,

Lunch atop a skyscraper

On September 20, 1932, high above 41st Street in Manhattan, 11 ironworkers took part in a daring publicity stunt. The men were accustomed to walking along the girders of the RCA building (now called the GE building) they were constructing in Rockefeller Center. On this particular day, though, they humored a photographer, who was drumming up excitement about the project’s near completion. Some of the tradesmen tossed a football; a few pretended to nap. But, most famously, all 11 ate lunch on a steel beam, their feet dangling 850 feet above the city’s streets.

For these dudes, eating lunch, having a smoke, reading a paper 850 feet above the ground was not a big deal. Another place, another time. It’s like Sheila, can we take a picture of you feeding your animals? Business as usual.

Then I got a email from a friend of mine with pictures of tinker toys, drive in movies, Dippity Do, Howdy Doody, saddle oxfords, and many more. All things I certainly remember. Another place, another time.

Then I had a conversation with my Mom today, and we talked about the picture in the course of the conversation. How we were as a people then. Tough, strong, brave, and we wanted to make our own way in the world. We wanted our children to have more and better chances than we did. We wanted to leave the world a better place for them. And often that was in the form of hard work, dangerous work, creative work, and sometimes war. Another place, another time.

And now, our children are “children”. In college they seek counseling from the trauma of seeing a name written in chalk. They need “safe spaces” in college, and college communications professors (fired now at University of Missouri at Columbia) trying to shut down, well, communications. They need the segregated “safe spaces” that the civil rights movement fought against a mere 50 years ago. Those struggles forgotten and dishonored. Another place, another time.

Instead of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington we have the dimocratic toddler time as they enjoy their catered in meals, bathroom breaks and publicity photo ops, rather than working to do right until they collapse. They are pitchin’ a hissy fit as they try to take rights, self-defense, endowed by our creator, not them. Another place, another time.

Dimocrat toddler time

Recently a holocaust survivor publicly confronted former London Mayor Ken Livingstone about several statements, one of which was hitler was a Zionist. He made several other erroneous statements and the radio host corrected him. He knew so much that wasn’t true.

“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” ~~Ronald Reagan

But it was the statement of Mala Tribich, survivor of Bergen-Belsen that hit me hard.

“I find them very offensive and hurtful when people belittle the Holocaust. When they use the Holocaust to score a political point,” she said.

“I really can’t see it. They are usually people in high places. I take them as being intelligent and educated. Yet they can stoop so low to use the Holocaust to better their positions. What really bothers me is that they do it whilst there are some survivors still around. What will they do when we’re all gone?”

As anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise world wide, entire political parties are openly anti-Semitic, anti-Israel or both, and it’s accepted or excused. They say things that would have gotten them shunned, kicked out of the political arena or the papers would have been chewing them up with the facts of their lies. Another place, another time.

Our wonderful Nicki and I exchanged some e-mails today talking about Moshe Feiglin, and she nailed it.

I just think it’s a sad state of our world that we actually hold men such as this as heroes. They should be the NORM. They should be the rule, not the exception, ya know?

And they did used to be, in another place, another time.

And so, someday the survivors will be gone, and then what will they (the liberals, the anti-Semites, the anti-Israel people) do? They will be confronted by me. And they will be confronted by Zelman’s Partisans, and they will be confronted by good, strong and brave people everywhere. People that seem to come from another place, another time.

When many people go to Israel, the want to see the historical sights. I do as well, especially military museums. There will most likely be a column on that. A lot of people want to eat the fabulous
food. Yes, me too. They want to shop, I’m SO there, especially when you talk about Yafo. They want to swim, did that. But what I really, really, really, really wanted to do, was interview Moshe Feiglin. At
which most tourist are probably saying “Excuse me?” But that was one of my very highest hopes for this trip. And I was successful.

I first learned about the former MK (Member of Knesset) when in response to something I had written my wonderfully kind team mate Y.B. sent me a portion of a Torah Thought from Mr. Feiglin. I loved it! I asked for more info and Y.B. told me who had written it and who he was. I did online research and signed up for the Manhigut Yehudite newsletter and was soon getting my own copies of Torah Thoughts included with each newsletter which I very much looked
forward to receiving. Each newsletter included Torah and politics. Does it get any better? Well, also a Dry Bones Cartoon. That’s pretty good too.

Last year I got to interview Mr. Feiglin by phone, and it was a great interview. This year it was in person. I feel very blessed.

So why my fascination? My respect first blossomed when he was writing articles calling for the Israeli government to make it easier for everyday Israelis to get weapons permits. Gun Control? Or Citizen Control?

With all that has been going on in Israel, I had a lot of questions for Mr. Feiglin. Especially since he along with the support of a lot of everyday people have founded a new political party. Zehut, which means “Identity”. Zehut is unusual in that they also allow people from places other than Israel to join. And with that I tell you I am a proud card carrying member. Well, I will be when my card gets here, but I am.

My first question was why form Zehut? Was it in response to the betrayal of leadership in politics? They campaign on one platform and then when elected turn and go another direction?

Feiglin: The average Israeli feels disenfranchised from their Jewish identity and the concept of a Jewish state. (I believe he said in a recent poll that 80% of Israelis identify as Jewish first, and as an Israeli second). The disenfranchisement started with the Oslo accords and now takes the form of things like a Judge appointed to the High Court who refused to sing HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem after being sworn in. It shows in an army which is now refusing to allow soldiers to grow beards, “too much Jewish”. And very sadly when a Yad Vashem guide pointed out that the murder of Gil-Ad Shaer,16, Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Naftali Fraenkel,16 had occurred in Gush Etzion because they were Jewish. (That would seem evident to
me, but I guess political correctness can run amuck anywhere). Israel is a Jewish democratic state, but 10% controls the power and it is eroding Jewish values.

I have a few questions about everyday Israelis being allowed to carry weapons. Why are there areas where people are not allowed to have carry permits? A buddy moved from Jerusalem where he could carry, to Tel Aviv and now he can’t. He’s no less qualified in Tel Aviv. Yafo which suffered a terrorist attack is certainly within walking distance of Tel Aviv, I’ve done so! Why aren’t the military allowed to carry off duty, and why after people are out of the military can they not automatically be allowed to carry a weapon? As it turns out, the answer to all these questions are the same. Mr. Feiglin is very good at seeing the big picture and summing it up.

Feiglin: Because the concept of freedom is wrong. It should be the concept that the right of self- defense is G-d given! In Israel they believe that the right is given by the state. And if the state can give you the right to self defense, they can take that right away. In America they had the right concept, although they are losing the mindset. They believed anyone should be allowed to own guns unless they showed they were not to be trusted with them. (I pointed out that the UN does not believe self defense is a human right at all. Considering how anti-Israel the UN is, that is really not a good
combination). Zehut believes in planting in the Israeli mind the concept of true freedom. That everyone is responsible to defend their life, that of their family and the nation. Of course, there are those that oppose this. When I was in the Knesset I fought for more people to be allowed to carry. There were 150,000 people licensed to carry. But the Knesset wants to decrease that till terrorism decreases. You have the state as “Big Brother”.

What about the shooting in Hevron? (Sheila’s article on this incident) WHY is this soldier being prosecuted? Didn’t the fact that the video came from B’Tselem raise suspicions? This produced a wealth of information. This is so much more to this than a simple case of Katie Couric media malfeasance. I really think you should go read Moshe’s whole article on this topic, but here is what we covered.

Feiglin: This is a war of Israelis and Jews. It’s the soul of the Israeli, for what comes first, a concept of citizen or Jewish state. It’s been going on a long time. For the Israeli (in this comparison, sounds to me like your typical “enlightened” leftist who doesn’t have good sense about how this will play out) it’s the citizen, not Jewish state or identity. It was certainly evident when the Eichmann trial took place in Israel in 1961. A Jewish writer Hannah Arendt wrote a book, “Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,”with basically the premise that Eichmann was just there, wrong place, wrong time. Can’t blame him, can’t blame anyone but Hitler. Anyone would have acted the same. Apparently some Israeli “intellectuals”
felt the need to agree. This kind of thinking is evident in the IDF today. The former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon recently said that “If someone rises to kill you, kill him first” is not the IDF’s strategy. The Deputy Chief of Staff equated those who subscribe to that value with Nazis. He would rather lose soldiers who protect citizens than kill terrorists. There is no difference in the value of the life of a person just out doing their shopping and the terrorist that comes to kill them. Certainly had nothing to do with ideology, right? But yet today some Arabs want to kill any Jew, soldier, civilian, man, woman, child or baby, it doesn’t matter. It IS the ideology. When Arafat was sick in Ramallah I had a sign on my car that said Hurry up and kill him before he dies. For someone that had that much blood on his hands to die in his own time is immoral. For terrorists to go to trial is immoral. A healthy Jewish response is you kill the attackers. You kill the terrorists that have
declared their own war on Jews. After the soldier killed the terrorist, the stabbings stopped. He did more than all the speeches.

What about the Temple Mount, Har HaBeit? Why are the Israeli police so quick to remove Jews? One young boy was even recently removed not for saying anything but because he had tears in his eyes. And for those that wonder, yes I did express my opinion of Moshe Dayan’s decision.

Feiglin: It has to do with losing identity. We must let Jews have their identity on the Temple Mount. There are those replacing Jewish identity, and they fear what Israel will become with it’s Jewish identity. Arabs do not really have an identity so much as filled with hatred. It’s in their textbooks, their schools, mosques, social media and how they are raised. If Israel disappeared from the map, there would be no more “Palestinian”. Their reason for being would be gone. The first Zionists were colonialists from Europe, and they just wanted to be one big happy family. They didn’t understand the Arab mindset. Most Israelis are Jews first, Israeli second but they are being led by a minority that doesn’t have that mindset.

What about the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) or as I call it (BS) movement? Has it had an effect? Is it just plain anti-Semitism in increments?

Feiglin: BDS is about the delegitimizing of Israel. When did the holocaust start? (He did ask me this, and I thought for a second and answered “the night Hitler was conceived”) That was the correct answer. When Hitler spoke again and again against the Jews it had it’s effect. In 1939 or 1940 when Jews ran to their neighbors to hide, they were killed. It was about eliminating the right of Jews to exist. Israel has to attack Iran, there is a real danger of Jewish history being written in Jerusalem. Not Warsaw. It’s needed to make a moral point. There is a correlation between the speeches made in Iran 12 ½ years ago by Ahmadinejad and the delegitimization of Israel, and it’s growing.

My last question to him “We’ve had a possible Kenyan as a president, at least someone not really raised as an American, I think we should try having an Israeli for a President, would you run?”

Feiglin: I’ve been asked about the current election. My answer is it doesn’t matter which one wins. If Israel will do what is best for Israel, then all will be better.

I started this interview by telling him that I felt like I cared more about Israeli lives than some Israeli politicians did.

After talking to him, I am quite certain that is not how it is when it comes to Mr. Feiglin. He has a very sound political platform based on a Jewish identity in THE Jewish state, living by Jewish laws and principles. Laws that will protect the innocent, laws that will allow every citizen living their daily lives be it in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Judea and Samaria to know their lives are worth defending and giving them the means to do so. It will allow the IDF to return to being the fine army it was meant to be and not a social experiment.

Zehut is a party based on knowing who we are, and what we are, and where we belong. And embracing it!

Honestly, I think there is a lesson in this for Americans as well. Because I’m very, very tired of having values that the majority of U.S. believe in being derided and told “that’s not who we are”.
Yeah, it is. And as the politicians and their compatriots in the media crank up to hype another round of gun control tripe, we would do well to remember it. It makes me think so much of “You can live
by G-d’s law or die by man’s.

I want to thank three wonderful people, Aryeh Sonnenberg who is the international director of Zehut and so warmly welcomed me when I joined. He put me in touch with Shmuel Sackett (who I got to talk with on the phone, really) who set the meeting up with Moshe. Shmuel also writes excellent articles. And I very much want to thank Moshe Feiglin for giving me an hour of his very valuable limited time. And since I often like to close with a video, this one is perfect!

I, for one, do put the blame squarely on the political leadership currently in power (but not for the reasons claimed by MSNBC and their ilk). I shudder to think of how the Heavenly Court will rule, when they each stand begging for mercy, soaked up to their armpits in the blood of their brothers and sisters.